The UK government has in recent years done much good work on violence against women and girls in their development programmes and funding and this has frankly saved women's lives. But now more than ever, we must keep up the momentum and commit to more core, flexible and long-term funding for women's rights organisations.

We rarely hear the Prime Minister or members of his government talk about the "Big Society" nowadays. The idea behind it was simple. It is in most cases always better to get government out of the way of individuals, and to encourage the voluntary sector and local people to take a lead in improving their communities...

I recently watched Safe House, an espionage thriller about a former intelligence service officer who goes on the run to guard a deadly secret. Most of these thrillers are just the same humdrum storyline rehashed, but at least this film was clearly written by someone who knows something about the job.